Her Long Wait Is Over As She Is Reunited With Her Husband

Long Huynh was 28 and eight months pregnant with her fourth child when Saigon fell to the Communists and her husband went to "jail."

For nine years, more than half of them spent in the Lehigh Valley after she escaped by boat, Long wondered about her husband's fate.

The uncertainty ended last year when he escaped from the re-education camp in Vietnam, fled to Malaysia and wrote to her. Once a week, he has written since then.

And last night, for the first time in nearly a decade, Long saw her husband. And Thien Minh Tran saw his nine-year-old daughter Tuong Vi for the first time.

The reunion at the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport was one of hundreds arranged by the Catholic Social Agency, butit was an especially happy one for the operators of the refugee assistance program.

It was the agency that first arranged for Long and her children to come to the Lehigh Valley when they escaped from Vietnam in 1978. Since then, Long's entire family, except for Tran, was resettled in Easton.

The entire clan - a very excited and Americanized-looking bunch in jeans and sneakers and ski jackets - was at the airport last night to greet 43-year- old Tran and his 16-year-old nephew, Dung.

"I'm so excited. I'm so very happy," said Long Huynh, nervously lined up with her brood at the end of the passenger terminal in a picture-perfec t pose.

"Ten years we waited for this day," said Long's brother, Chi Huynh, who lives with a group of relatives near Long.

While there is no doubt the family was trembling with excitement, the reunion was a bit different from what one might expect.

There were plenty of hugs and happy exchanges in Vietnamese but no tears or kisses. Picture-taking was among the top priorities.

Elsie Adams, resettlement coordinator, explained that Vietnamese traditionally do not display the type of public affection Americans are used to.

For Dung, Tran's nephew, it was a day of mixed emotions.

He looked nervous and scared as he met for the first time the family he would be living with. He no doubt was thinking of his parents and brothers and sisters whom he left behind.

It was also a happy night for Quang Dinh Tran of Allentown, who was reunited with his cousin and his cousin's son after a decade of separation.

Tran escaped in 1975 with his family and seven children, but his cousin, Ngoc Bang Nguyen, was sent to jail and they lost touch.

But Nguyen also escaped last year and contacted Tran. His wife and three other children remain in Vietnam.

"It is a very difficult decision when they have to say goodbye to each other," said Tran's son, Khanh. He said it will be difficult for Nguyen and his son to contact their family.